Sponge Cakes - Black Forest & Green Tea

This time round is an order from Devi. She wanted to surprise her hubby on his birthday that fell on the same day as the group's gathering for fast-breaking during Ramadhan.

She ordered two 9x12" Black Forest. I thought about it and felt that it would be better to have different flavours for two different cakes. I proposed to her to try on the Green Tea Sponge with cream cheese + whippy filling -just like a tiramisu, just change the cheese- and she agreed to it. Well, let's get to work then! :) It is always challenging when your customer is willing to take up the challenge of having a new taste. And it is left on me on how to make the cake turn out great. Here is how it had turned out.


I started baking on Friday morning. My new K didn't give me the result that I wanted (well, I should've given it a try anyway). After two batches of cakes, choc n green tea, I left for work. I came back home and did another batch for the green sponge & half of the choc. Yayyy, they turned out well! Why I baked another half for choc? Because Raqi would surely ask for his share :) I learnt from my experiences, though.

After brushing the cakes with their syrups (lemon for GT, cherry for BF) to help them stay moist, I went to sleep. I continued after Sahur. Made the cheese filling, whipped the cream, putting in all the fillings, covered the cakes, with some interruptions of this & that, including going for JMC class with Raqi. Came back at 1 pm, I started to decorate the cake. I was grateful that the weather was friendly enough that I could work in peace with the whipped cream. Finished decorating the cake just in time to leave for fast-breaking at my fellow KUA friend.

Happy Birthday Arief!

New Member of QnRkitchen

Take a peep!


26 Aug 2010


'tis my kitchen's new family member. Been long for it and had spent much time thinkin' about it. A warm welcome for 'Major K', I hope that our stint will be as sweet for a long, long...time.

Kaastengels a.k.a Cheese Sticks

Yesterday I was very much into baking cookies. Determined that it was the day I should start stocking up cookies for the Ied Fitr Festive. Away from the drowsy cough medicine, I stood from slightly passed 10 in the morning until around 4 in the afternoon. Pfuih...didn't really think that it would take so long to bake them. Or is it because I haven't done a lot of cookies these days?

The cookies did very well. Kiddies liked it and they finished some of them. I managed (at last) to weigh the total of cookies baked. 730g from one recipe. And the process...was killing me >:|

Imagine standing and walking only within the kitchen parameter for 6 hours, you must be asking, how much did I bake? The answer is ONE recipe. Then you'd say, "You must be joking!"...well, maybe yes maybe not. The rolling & cutting just drove me a bit mad, because then some of them would fall apart or broke when lifted to be moved to the tray. My boy also wanted to have his horse cookie cutter to be used. The horse's legs are so thin that the dough would stick in it and therefore add a lot of time to the process. You'll see how it looks like here...


But I am glad enough to know that my skill for cookies from school days hasn't vanished at all. Even so, I still prefer to bake cakes or make a big size dessert rather than making all the tiny miny types of treats.

For you whom are not familiar with the name 'Kaastengels', it is a dutch word that means cheese stick. It is usually shaped like a stick or mini-log. But with the idea that I got from NCC, which uses flower cookie cutter instead, I used my kids 'play-dough cookie cutter'. They turned out cute, though.

I adopted the recipe from my beloved mailing list: NCC Indonesia. I am delighted to discover this forum of wonderful people that helped (and still helping) me in most aspects of baking. Well, that'd be another story. Will tell you about it some other time. For now, I'd better bake some more cookies! :)

Green Tea Tiramisu

 

No doubt that most people would love the classic tiramisu, which is coffee flavoured. However, after reading a book of Keiko Ishida, I felt really tempted to make the Green Tea Tiramisu. My gut feeling didn't betray me. The GTT was as heavenly as its Italian counterpart. Drifting you to a soft & smooth with a breeze... Try it, you'll say likewise ;)

Green Tea Tiramisu

Hola! It's been weeks since the last update.

I have suddenly gotten into the green tea madness. Last week I tried to bake chôux pastry, a Japanese style. Irregardless of the experience with my usual recipe of chôux, I considered this one as a fail. But not to be despaired, the green tea pastry cream was amazingly tasty! So, that's why I decided to try another recipe using this maccha (green tea powder).

Sunday morning, I wanted to make something refreshing after my kids recovered from cold & coughing. But still under a no-ice cream and ice cubes strict diet. Therefore, I made the Italian Tiramisu that uses minimal cocoa powder n coffee dipper. I put aside 1/4 of the cream mix to experiment with the maccha. My kids definitely love the original one, but they refuse anything other than chocolate. Thus, my hubby and I could share the GTT just between us :). The taste? AMAZING!! You should try it too! :). Thanks to Keiko Ishida for sharing the idea of making a Green Tea Tiramisu. Arigatou gozaimashita. Haik!



Not to forget to mention about the Lady Fingers biscuits, I had made them on Saturday morning so that I could just start with the Tiramisu anytime later. But, you know what? My Raqi liked them so much because its sponginess and had them all! In the end I woke up early on Sunday to bake the fingers again and right away made the Tiramisu, just in case he wanted to eat them again...hehehhh... True enough, he was so sad that he didn't find more biscuits because I chucked them all in the bowls, under the cream. And today he called me and asked me to bake them again. Ok, sweetie pie...will do that tomorrow morning. What? Oh no, he wants it tonight :?!

Would you say 'no' to a broken voice you heard over the phone?